title: p75 neurotrophin receptor positive dental pulp stem cells: new hope for patients with neurodegenerative disease and neural injury.
abstract: Neurodegenerative diseases and neural injury are 2 of the most feared disorders that afflict humankind by leading to permanent paralysis and loss of sensation. Cell based treatment for these diseases had gained special interest in recent years. Previous studies showed that dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) could differentiate toward functionally active neurons both in vitro and in vivo, and could promote neuranagenesis through both cell-autonomous and paracrine neuroregenerative activities. Some of these neuroregenerative activities were unique to tooth-derived stem cells and superior to bone marrow stromal cells. However, DPSCs used in most of these studies were mixed and unfractionated dental pulp cells that contain several types of cells, and most were fibroblast cells while just contain a small portion of DPSCs. Thus, there might be weaker ability of neuranagenesis and more side effects from the fibroblast cells that cannot differentiate into neural cells. p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) positive DPSCs subpopulation was derived from migrating cranial neural crest cells and had been isolated from DPSCs, which had capacity of differentiation into neurons and repairing neural system. In this article, we hypothesize that p75NTR positive DPSCs simultaneously have greater propensity for neuronal differentiation and fewer side effects from fibroblast, and in vivo transptantation of autologous p75NTR positive DPSCs is a novel method for neuranagenesis. This will bring great hope to patients with neurodegenerative disease and neural injury.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Craniomaxillofacial Science, Ninth People's Hospital, College of Stomatology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology. Shanghai 200011, China.E-mail:daijiewen@163.com.
authors.forename: Jie-wen
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Shun-yao
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Jing-ting
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Xiao-fang
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jiang-fei
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Guo-fang
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D002454:Cell Differentiation; D003782:Dental Pulp; D006801:Humans; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases; D009474:Neurons; D020800:Receptor, Nerve Growth Factor; D017475:Receptors, Nerve Growth Factor; D013234:Stem Cells
chemical_list: C484065:NGFR protein, human; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D020800:Receptor, Nerve Growth Factor; D017475:Receptors, Nerve Growth Factor